A few news regarding command roles for the Ukrainian and the Russian side.
Brigadier General Yevhen Ostrianskyi, head of the Defense Planning Department of Ukraine’s General Staff, stated that the personnel of the General Staff will be cut by 60%; the redundancies shall be redistributed to combat units and intermediate command and control bodies.
https://t.me/GeneralStaffZSU/14875
This comes after internal audits held by Syrsky during the past few months and is in all likelihood a necessity in response to the most serious manpower shortage affecting the UAF: the lack of officers. The laid-off personnel will go to staff both combat units (primarily, I assume, the new brigades being created) and to strengthen the staff of OSGs (Operational-Strategic Groups) and OTGs (Operational-Tactical Groups). In addition, it’s stated that there will be changes in the current command structure, also with the aim of avoiding “duplication” of roles. Let’s recall that the current chain of command in Ukraine is: brigade –> OTG –> OSG –> GS. TGs (Tactical Groups) may be between the first and second level and OGs (Operational Groups) between the second and third, but they are rarely used. Moreover, operational commands have their own staffs but don’t perform command/operative functions as far as I know, but they have just a formal, support and organizational role (I believe they also oversee the creation of new brigades, their territorial recruiting basins, etc).
DeepState stated that 28 officers are being investigated by the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation in response to the failure to defend the borders in the early days of the Russian offensive against Kharkiv Oblast (scarce preparation of fortifications, having ignored the Russian build-up in the grey area near the border). The officers being inquired range from the (former) commander of the OTG “Kharkiv” (Brigadier General Halushkin) to company commanders of units that were in that sector in early May, including the commander of the 125th TDF Brigade (which was responsible for the front line between the Kharkiv River and the Siversky Donets), who has since been removed from his post. Commanders of the 415th Separate Rifle Battalion, of a battalion of the 23rd Mechanized Brigade and of the 172nd Territorial Defense Battalion of the 120th TDF Brigade are being inquired too.
https://t.me/DeepStateUA/19554
News from yesterday but wasn’t posted, so I do so now. The commander of Russia’s 20th Army (Moscow Military District), Major General Sukhrab Akhmedov, has been removed from his post (officially he has resigned). The news was originally reported by Vladimir Rogov, who stated that Akhmedov is now at the disposal of the MoD. It’s unclear by whom he will be replaced.
https://t.me/milinfolive/122806
Numerous Russian Telegram channels are satisfied with this. As the man until now in charge of the offensive actions against Terny and Yampolivka in the Kreminna sector, he had been heavily criticized over the recent months for his operational choices, which resulted in heavy losses - particularly among units of the 144th Motorized Division - with progress almost absent for nearly 3 months now. Not to mention his role in Vuhledar in late 2022 and early 2023 as the commander of the coastal troops of the Pacific Fleet (he was a protégé of Muradov - they are even brother-in-laws).
Interestingly, some minor Russian channels mention an incoming change in the leadership of the Group of Forces “North”. The current commander is Colonel General Lapin (since mid-April, when this GoF was created); he may be replaced by Major General Alexander Kravtsov, i.e. the current commander of the 41st Army (Central Military District). I stress that unlike the previous case these are just rumors and this is not confirmed by more authoritative sources, so in the coming days we will see if that finds development or confirmation. It’s stated that Lapin would remain commander of the Leningrad Military District anyway - but I repeat, take this with a grain of salt.
https://t.me/vdv_za_chestnost_spravedlivost/2505
One of these two sources states that the commander of the operations in Vovchansk is Major General Storozhenko, commander of the 6th Army (Leningrad Military District). He is a native of Kharkiv and in 2014 was the commander, as a colonel, of Ukraine’s 36th Coastal Defense Brigade in Crimea. When the Russians seized the latter, he defected to their side, and became the commander of the 126th Coastal Defense Brigade, created on the basis of the disbanded Ukrainian brigade (which was later reconstituted in Mykolaiv as the current 36th Marine Brigade). He later made a career in the Russian Armed Forces, becoming deputy commander of the 35th Army (Eastern Military District) and its acting commander during spring/summer 2022. I believe he became commander of the 6th Army in the beginning of this year, when according to some Russian rumors, the leadership of the 6th Army and of its brigades was removed following the costly failures around Synkivka, in the Kupyansk sector.
This month there was also a reshuffle in the command of some military districts, according to what I have found from Russian official sources.
Colonel General Kuzovlev became commander of the new Moscow Military District (unclear if, as a result, commander of the GoF “West” too). Before Russian sources disclosed that, it was anticipated by the Ukrainian military observer Mashovets in mid April. Kuzovlev was until now the commander of the Southern Military District, where he was replaced by Colonel General Anashkin (the current commander of the GoF “South” is not known). As written above, Lapin has been the commander of the Leningrad Military District since its creation in late February. Colonel General Mordvichev, titled of the seizing of Avdiivka, was confirmed as commander of the Central Military District as well as the GoF “Centre”. Lieutenant General Alexander Sanchik became the commander of the Eastern Military District, replacing Colonel General Kuzmenko. The current commander of the GoF “Vostok” is unknown. In contrast, the commander of the GoF “Dnepr” remains Colonel General Teplinsky, who is also the commander of VDV.
I hope so, but it would be difficult. Creating divisions by aggregating existing brigades would create a need for a lot of additional staff officers, although it would serve to level out the difference in quality among brigades and improve the possibility of internal rotations / endowment of “domestic” reserves. A different matter would be, on the other hand, reforming the existing brigades, which are separate units, into line regiments - with approximately the same number of maneuver battalions, but with considerably fewer support units as well as officers in the HQ staff within the unit, which in both cases would be concentrated at the divisional level. But even this would not be easy at all as it would involve a total reform of the system, and it would also clash with the interests of the commanders of the existing brigades, and, at this point in the war, with the history, honours and traditions of the various brigades.
Incidentally, Ukraine has created five army corps over the last year, which I forgot to mention. But in fact they have only a support and, partly, control function. Not a command/operational one, to my knowledge (except, to some extent, during the summer counteroffensive in the South). Which is very strange. A partial exception is the 30th Marine Corps, which so far had been entirely deployed in Kherson. But if you look at the other corps (7th Air Assault Corps; 9th, 10th and 11th Army Corps), their brigades are scattered in various sectors. Probably their HQ staffs are poor, and in any case the GS chose not to give them the classic powers that would belong to a corps, for some reason. Russian corps/armies generally fight with their units concentrated, in their entirety or in their vast majority (although there are exceptions), in one sector.
At the moment, it’s OTGs that perform the tasks that would naturally belong to corps. But they don’t have their own units - they are active at the command and control level, as well as regarding intelligence and logistics for instance, but they don’t have their own maneuver units, nor artillery, engineering, medical, maintenance ones and so on, but they use such units from the brigades under their command.